Early Ministries

Khwaja Nazimuddin (1948-51):

• Objectives Resolution:

  • The first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan setup a Basic Principles Committee of 25 members to draft the constitution.

    • It presented the Objectives Resolutions on 12th March 1949.

    • It recommended observance of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice so that Muslims and non-Muslims could follow their faith comfortably.

    • It also recommended a bicameral parliament.

  • It was sharply criticized by the Ulama/religious scholars and the East Pakistan.

  • This draft was presented to the Constituent Assembly on 28th September 1950.

• Public and Representative Officers Disqualification Act (PRODA):

  • It was passed by the government of Liaqat Ali Khan and Khwaja Nazimuddinin, 1949.

    • It was aimed at curbing corruption and misuse of power by the politicians and civil servants.

    • Complaints in this regard could be made to the Governor-General or Provincial Governors who could order an enquiry by judges.

    • Anyone found guilty could be debarred from office for a suitable period of time.

  • However, it was seen as a device that allowed the ruling elite to remove those it did not like.

  • It was repealed in September 1954 by the Assembly of Malik Ghulam Muhammad.

• Constitutional Crisis of 1950:

  • On 28th September 1950, the draft of the Objectives Resolution was presented before the Constituent Assembly.

  • East Pakistan immediately opposed it as it wanted a share in the parliament according to the size of its population whereas the Resolution recommended equal seats of East and West Pakistan.

    • It also opposed imposition of Urdu as the official language.

    • The provincial politicians opposed the powers of the head of state and the central government.

  • The Ulama considered the draft insufficiently Islamic.

  • In November 1950, Liaqat Ali Khan had to withdraw it.

• The Minorities Pact:

  • It was signed to stop the movement of minorities across the Pak-India border.

  • In April 1950, Pakistani PM Liaqat Ali Khan and Indian PM Jawahar Lal Nehru signed this agreement.

  • It was agreed that each country would provide protection and religious freedom to the religious minorities living in Pakistan and India so that these minorities would be encouraged to stay back in their native state.

  • However, the movement of people belonging to religious minorities continued to migrate across the border as they did not trust any such statements made by the government about giving them protection.

• Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case:

  • Some army officers were not happy with the government, and they plotted a coup to overthrow the government.

  • In March 1951, the ‘Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case’ was discovered by General Ayub Khan and the conspirators were arrested, tried and imprisoned.

    • They included senior officers like Major-General Akbar Khan and 14 other officers including the famous poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

    • This proved to be a forerunner of the involvement of army in the politics of Pakistan.

Ghulam Muhammad (1951-55):

• Malik Ghulam Muhammad became the 3rd Governor General in Oct, 1951.

• He persuaded Khawaja Nazam ud Din to step down as Prime Minister enticing him that he would enjoy more executive powers.

• Being an expert in financial affairs he introduced the scheme of 6 Year Plan that was later changed into a 5 Year Plan.

  • Its aim was to make economic planning regarding agriculture, industry, power and transport sectors.

  • He set up a Planning Board in 1953 to review various developments schemes.

  • A major jute processing plant was set up in 1952 in East Pakistan as a result of efforts for exploring oil and gas reserves, natural gas was discovered at Sui in Balochistan in 1952.

  • In 1952-53 Pakistan had positive Balance of Payment (BOP) due to a huge demand of cotton and jute in the wake of the Korean war that caused large scale export of these commodities.

  • During the same period, however, there was serious food shortage due to severe drought in East and West Pakistan.

  • This caused unrest and violence that was aggravated by an anti-Qadiani movement.

    • Religious parties demanded removal of Qadinis /Ahmadis from key posts including the foreign minister Sir Zafar ullah Khan, Malik Ghulam Muhammad dismissed Khawaja Nazam ud Din in April 1953 on his failure to control the crisis.

• 1954-55 Constitutional Crisis:

  • Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad wanted to retain the executive powers whereas his PM, Muhammad Ali Bogra opposed him.

  • He was in favour of a purely parliamentary form of government with the PM as the executive head of state.

  • On 21st September 1954, Bogra got an important bill passed by the Assembly while Ghulam Muhammad was abroad.

    • Under the bill, it was binding on the Governor-General to take the advice of his Ministers.

    • The Assembly also repealed the PRODA (Public and Representative Officers Disqualification Act).

    • Ghulam Muhammad, acting quickly, dissolved the Constituent Assembly and dismissed the Bogra government on 29 September 1954.

Iskander Mirza (1955-58):

• 1956 Constitution:

  • It was approved by the 2nd Constituent Assembly elected under the rule of Iskander Mirza.

  • It was a compromise between the Muslim League and the United Front.

  • Pakistan was officially called Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Mirza became the President.

  • It empowered the president to choose the PM and dissolve the National Assembly and the Cabinet under his emergency powers.

  • The President had to be a Muslim.

  • There were equal seats of East and West Pakistan in the Assembly under the One Unit Scheme.

  • It was abrogated in October 1958 under the first martial law of Pakistan.

• The One Unit Policy:

  • On 14th October 1955, Governor-General Iskander Mirza implemented the One Unit Scheme.

    • Under this, all provinces of West Pakistan were unified to become a single province against the single province of East Pakistan.

    • Both East and West Pakistan were given equal seats in the National Assembly though East Pakistan had 10 million more people than West Pakistan.

    • Therefore, it was opposed by East Pakistan and the smaller provinces of West Pakistan.

  • However, it remained valid in the 1956 and the 1962 constitutions.

  • It was scrapped by General Yahya Khan in March 1969.

• South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO):

  • In September 1954 the SEATO was setup to counter the communist/Soviet influence in the South East Asian states.

  • Its members were the US, the UK, France, the Philippines, Thailand, New Zealand and Australia. Pakistan joined it in 1955 in the face of fierce opposition at home.

    • Under the treaty, if any member was attacked by a communist state, it could seek help from other members.

    • Pakistan tried to persuade the members to set up a permanent military to protect all members against an attack by any country but in vain.

    • Thus Pakistan failed to receive any help by the SEATO in the 1965 and 1971 wars.

    • It left it in 1972.

• Central Treaty Organization (CENTO):

  • It was a US-sponsored military bloc aimed at countering the communist/Soviet influence in the Middle East.

  • Initially, Turkey and Iraq had signed the treaty called the Baghdad Pact in 1955. Pakistan, Iran and the UK joined it the same year.

    • Iraq left it in 1959 because of a revolution, and the treaty was renamed CENTO.

  • However, despite regular meetings the group never became a permanent structure with a combined army.

    • Like the SEATO, it too could not help Pakistan in the 1965 and 1971 wars.

    • It was dissolved in 1979.

Muhammad Ayub Khan (1958-69):

• Basic Democracies:

  • These were the local governments announced under the Basic Democracies Order of 26th October 1959.

  • People elected the Basic Democrats of the union councils in the 1959-60 elections held on non-party basis.

    • They then elected the councils for tehsil, district and division.

    • 80,000 Basic Democrats thus elected, formed the Electoral College to elect the President.

    • 95% of them elected Ayub Khan in a referendum on 17th February 1960.

  • These were abolished by General Yahya Khan in 1969.

• 1962 Constitution:

  • It was implemented on 1st March 1962 by a Constituent Commission appointed by Ayub Khan.

    • The President was the executive head of the state elected by the electoral college of the Basic Democrats.

    • He nominated the Cabinet from the members of the National Assembly.

    • He also nominated the provincial governors and the heads of the judiciary.

    • The National Assembly had equal seats of East and West Pakistan, and could not pass a law without the approval of the President.

    • Urdu and Bengali were declared as the national languages.

  • It was abrogated by General Yahya Khan in April 1969.

• Green Revolution:

  • Ayub’s agricultural reforms are called the Green Revolution.

    • Under this HYV (High Yield Variety) seeds, chemical fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides were used to maximize the crop yield.

    • Tractors, harvesters and threshers were also introduced to speed up various processes.

    • Under the Land Reforms Act of 1959, smaller land holdings were consolidated while an upper limit or a land ceiling was fixed for the ownership of the land holdings.

    • As a result, the agricultural output increased significantly.

• Visit to Moscow:

  • The new Soviet President Khurushchev showed interest in establishing friendly relations with Pakistan.

    • He extended an invitation to President Ayub Khan to visit Moscow.

  • Pakistani government was already upset by the U-2 incident of 1959 and the US military aid to India in 1962, while it was already receiving aid from the Soviet Union.

    • So, Ayub visited the Soviet capital Moscow in April 1965.

    • Both sides discussed matters of bilateral interests including the Pak-US relations, and the Soviet support to India and Afghanistan.

    • Pakistan received a package of financial aid from the Soviets, and signed agreements about trade and oil exploration.

    • Soviet PM Alexis Kosygin declared it a successful visit.

• Operation Grand Slam:

  • It was a plan drafted in May 1965 by the Pakistan Army.

    • Under this, the army had to attack the Akhnoor Bridge in Jammu and Kashmir, the lifeline of a full Indian infantry division as well as a possible post to target Jammu and Kashmir.

    • Unfortunately it failed as the military objectives were not achieved and the Pakistan Army had to retreat.

  • This operation escalated to the second Indo-Pak war in September 1965.

• A New Capital:

  • Islamabad was located at a better place.

    • Ayub wanted to be closer to the army’s command headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi in the northern Punjab which he considered vital in times of martial law.

    • Also, he got closer to Punjab and the NWFP (KPK) that provided bulk of troops for the armed forces of Pakistan.

    • He could see a visible influence of the commercial districts of Karachi on many of the government officials.

    • Many of them had started taking interest in trade instead of their official duties.

  • Development of Karachi as the port and the capital city had left northern Pakistan relatively under developed.

    • Ayub wanted to shift the power base from the industrially and commercially developed south to the Punjab in the north.

    • Karachi has a warm and humid climate whereas Islamabad was located at the Margalla hills near Murree with a pleasant climate suitable for working.

      - It was an abandoned place where it was easier to build a planned city with a desired layout.

    • Karachi had become overburdened with a growth of buildings and population due to large scale influx of refugees from India and rural-urban migration.

      - The existing state buildings in Karachi were not adequate to meet the needs of a modern capital.

    • Karachi’s location on the Indus Delta Coast made it vulnerable to attacks by the Indian navy.

      - In such a case, there was a fear of huge cost of reconstruction if it was destroyed by the Indians in case of a war.

  • Islamabad, being a land locked city, was at a reasonable distance from the Pak-India border and was a much better option.

  • Therefore, construction work was continued in the 1960s and the capital was officially shifted to Islamabad in 1967.

General Yayha Khan:

• He was a distinguished military officer who had fought in the British Eighth Army in the Second World War.

• He was the Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army when Ayub handed him power after imposing the second martial law in March 1969.

• He held first general elections in Pakistan in 1970 but could not control the resultant political crisis in East Pakistan.

• He started military operation in East Pakistan in March 1971 that escalated to the third Pak- India war in December 1971 and defeat of Pakistan.

  • This made him extremely unpopular and he died in a state of house arrest in 1980.